Abysmal Games
by Hellfire Writes
Summary: Two years after the Ceremonial Duel, a lot of things have changed about Yugi. But what really changed? And can any of these changes help him defend Domino City from a vengeful Ancient Egyptian Priestess? Yaoi. (Rewrite of He's Suddenly A Yami!) Rated M purely for safety reasons.
1. Two Years Time

**A/N: Well, here we are - the official posting of the rewrite. I wasn't really expecting much from the people who read the original, so imagine my delight when someone was actually excited about the repost. Old readers, enjoy the much better, rewritten story! New readers, I'd suggest you** ** _don't_** **read the old version. It's really not in your best interests.**

 **A lot of things have changed in this rewrite, and there are too many to list out without taking up far too much of your time, so without further ado... Enjoy, my Sweetlings.**

* * *

 _Prologue: Two Years Time_

Yugi sat with his legs crossed on the floor of the tomb where the Ceremonial Duel had taken place only moments before. The island shook threateningly. He was, for the most part, unfazed.

"Uh, Yug'..." Joey sounded worried. "I think we should blow this popsicle stand!" He said from mere feet away. He was holding tight to the wall, one foot already on the stairs.

Yugi didn't move. The island shook again; Joey bolted up the stairs with a great deal of pep in his step. Yugi swallowed hard, his eyes still squeezed shut to hold back tears. He didn't have time to cry. For a moment he seriously considered remaining seated there - letting the roof collapse on top of him and crush him.

But he knew that wasn't the answer to his current problem.

Despite that, it was with no rush at all that he rose from the floor and began to climb the stairs. His eyes were open now - directed solely at the ground.

As he emerged from the tomb and began to make his way to the ship, he heard the roof of the tomb cave in. He sped his steps a bit and got aboard the ship.

Almost immediately, they set sail, and Yugi watched helplessly as the rest of the tomb, and eventually the the island as well, crumbled to pieces and was consumed by the waves. He gave a soft sigh and directed his attention briefly to Tea - who had somehow found a reason to give Tristan and Joey one of her infamous friendship speeches.

 _Probably because they didn't drag me out of the tomb by my arms…_ Yugi thought, and then sighed again. He shook his head, spiked hair swaying slightly.

It seemed that his sighs had drawn Ryou's attention. The pale boy approached him quietly. "Are you okay?"

Yugi deeply considered his answer for a moment before he slowly nodded. "I'm… Honestly, Ryou… I'm more worried about Atem."

"What?" Ryou's attempt at a teasing smile was weak, to say the least. "Worried the afterlife's not good enough for him?"

"A little," Yugi admitted with a sad smile, "And I swear, if it isn't… I will literally _fight_ Osiris. And Anubis, if need be. At the same time."

"This coming from the boy who once said violence was not the answer." He chuckled softly, though to Yugi it seemed more bitter than amused. "... He was like family to you, wasn't he?" He asked after a moment.

Yugi nodded. "An older brother."

It was Ryou who sighed this time, casting his gaze toward the floor of the boat. He was silent for a long time. It was this silence, for whatever reason, that caught Tea's attention. She paused mid-sentence, watching Yugi and Ryou.

Yugi was leaned forward against the rails, staring at the now setting sun with a sad expression. Ryou, too, leaned on the rails, but he was not facing them as Yugi was. He slowly lifted his head and stared into the slowly darkening sky. They continued to stare in two separate directions, never seeming to acknowledge each other.

Joey and Tristan took Tea's moment of distraction as their cue to skedaddle someplace else. "Someplace else" happened to be below the deck of the ship, specifically the staircase, where they watched warily to see if Tea would pursue them. Sure, neither of them minded her speeches much, but for a girl who had spent the vast majority of the Ceremonial Duel hoping Yugi, her dear friend, would _lose_ , she really had no room to talk at the moment. What kind of friend would do something like that?

Tea _did_ turn back to where they had previously been, but was entirely unsurprised to find them no longer there. They never stuck around for her lectures if they found a chance to leave. It was just their nature. So instead of being offended, she walked herself to the front of the ship and stared out at the water, not thinking how much she was copying Yugi at the moment. It didn't really matter, anyway.

Yugi took a deep breath. The wind was burning his eyes - or so he tried to tell himself - bringing back the tears he had tried so hard to get rid of. At least these would be more easily vanquished. He wiped his eyes stubbornly.

A quiet, bitter laugh caught his attention - he knew where it was coming from, but he couldn't help being surprised by the sad yet spiteful smile on Ryou's face.

"Gods dammit." He uttered. "Even after…" A somewhat more hysterical laugh - still bitter - escaped him, "Even after everything… All the shit he made me do… All the shit he fucking put me through…" His smile widened into more of a disbelieving grin, "I'm going to miss him."

Yugi had no response prepared for that.

"Wow, I'm a bloody dunce…" He didn't seem to be able to control the laughter. "He made my life a living _hell_ , even _before_ I knew he existed and yet I'm going to _miss_ him! I already do!" He closed his fists so tightly his knuckles became completely white. The grin faded from his face along with any trace of his hysterical mirth.

"... He was like a brother to you too, wasn't he?" Yugi eventually asked, although it was difficult to ask calmly as the fact that he had sworn sunk in. Ryou didn't swear - only Bakura did. For a moment, Yugi had the horrifying thought that Bakura was still in there somewhere.

It took what felt like an eternity for Ryou to reply, and when he did it was so quietly, so sadly, that all Yugi's doubts about Bakura left him immediately.

"Yeah…" He swallowed, "He was." A twitch of his lips. "A sadistic, psychotic, bloodthirsty, asshole of a brother… But, yeah." The smile that formed on Ryou's face this time was completely genuine. It took him a moment to register his own words, but as each profanity was finally acknowledged, his smile began to grow. He chuckled - Yugi almost considered the fact that it was _only_ amused a miracle. "I guess Bakura was right when he said he was rubbing off on me." He chuckled again, "I'm… Not sure how I feel about that, honestly."

Yugi smiled a little. "I think it might end up being a good thing." He admitted, "You could do with having the amount of confidence he had."

Ryou snorted. " _I_ could use the confidence? This coming from you?"

He laughed. "Well, of course. As someone with almost no confidence myself I can tell that you could use a little too."

Both of them went quiet again. Yugi fell into his thoughts, and, moments later, found himself chuckling. Ryou gave him an odd look. "Think of something funny?"

After considering it for a moment, Yugi replied, "I just realized something," He said, "And it's not so much funny as something to make you think a little bit." At Ryou's silently curious expression, he continued, "You and me, two weak and shy high school students, with no obvious relation to each other, are the direct descendants and/or reincarnations of the great Nameless Pharaoh and the Thief King Bakura. And not only that, they lived inside us for quite some time."

Ryou paused to let that soak in.

"And let's not forget," Yugi added, "Bakura and Atem _despised_ each other and we're actually pretty good friends." He stopped, "Or rather, Bakura despised Atem and Atem only disliked him because he was a genocidal psychopath… Either way."

After a moment, he chuckled softly. Ryou joined him; they got a little louder. They weren't sure _why_ they ended up laughing as hard as they did, or for as long as they did. One could speculate that the reason they laughed so much and for such a long time was not amusement - perhaps it was because they were relieved that their journey was over. Perhaps they were finally becoming hysterical, after all the time spent being unable to panic. Or, perhaps, relief and hysteria had nothing to do with it at all.

In truth, neither of them could retain any measure of control over their emotions at that time. Yugi was so overwhelmed by the sudden wave of sadness and loneliness he was experiencing that laughter was the only viable option. And Ryou could not fathom the idea of never hearing Bakura's voice in his head again.

Truly, laughter was the best course of action… All the others were better suited for someone like Bakura or Marik to perform.

They laughed until their sides were sore, unable to stop themselves. Both were unable to breathe, faces aching because the muscles couldn't handle so much use. They kept laughing for what felt like hours… Until Yugi's laughter began to transform into sobs. Ryou stopped laughing entirely, whole body trembling. Tears rolled down his face with no sound to warn that they were coming.

He slowly slid down the wall below the rails, letting his knees bump into his chest before burying his face in his hands and shook silently. Yugi soon turned and joined him on the floor, crossing his arms over his knees. He let his head fall into the cradle of his folded arms and began to sob louder. He couldn't comprehend this sudden, all-consuming despair he felt.

He knew, prior to the Ceremonial Duel, that he was going to miss Atem if he won. It was obvious, after all they had gone through together. Atem was a part of him, his best friend. His partner. With him gone, Yugi expected to miss him. It would have been stupid to think otherwise… But he didn't expect it to begin so quickly or be such a powerful feeling.

Ryou stopped crying long before Yugi, lifting his head slowly from his hands and staring into the sky as the last tears rolled down his face. He didn't understand. He had thought Bakura being gone would be a relief. He'd thought he would feel better… It didn't make sense to him. Why should he miss the spirit who had caused him so much pain? Who had tormented him ever since his father had given him the Millennium Ring all those years ago. For the past few months it had been like he'd accidentally jumped onto the Zorc Necrophades bandwagon and ridden straight to Hell - courtesy of his driver, the Thief King Bakura.

 _And let's not forget the constant free trips to the Shadow Realm when Bakura had control of my body…_

He sighed. He could feel the tears drying on his face - they had long since stopped flowing. He opened his eyes - although he had no recollection of closing them - and looked to Yugi. The smaller boy was still sobbing quietly, shoulders trembling. He looked so weak… Bakura had noticed that he often appeared that way, as had Ryou. It seemed that Atem really had been the source of the majority of Yugi's confidence and strength. With him inside the puzzle, it had all disappeared… And with him gone, all of Yugi's willpower was probably completely obliterated.

After a little bit of deep consideration, Ryou wrapped an arm loosely around Yugi's shoulders. For a reason he couldn't discern, he attempted to appear aloof while doing so.

"You're gonna be okay, Yugi."

 _ **Two Years Later…**_

Yugi frowned disapprovingly as Ryou pick pocketed one person after another as he walked. Aforementioned pale-skinned thief was unfazed by Yugi's disapproval and continued happily on his undetected crime spree. No one ever noticed Ryou, and if they did they didn't suspect him of stealing anything from them.

His innocent facade fooled everyone he came into contact with. And, of course, he was careful not to shatter this facade - it was all that kept him one step ahead of the law. Due to his carefully orchestrated personality, not a single person in Domino City - sans those who knew his true nature - suspected Ryou Bakura of being behind the sudden rise in crime.

To keep up his act, the boy even went out of his way to pick up things that passerby dropped and return them to their owners. His ruse worked so well that, usually, while he was handing the item he'd picked up for them back, he could pull something of much greater value from their person and they never noticed.

And by the time they did notice… He was usually long gone.

"Thief." Yugi stated blandly to Ryou after he pulled off his little scheme yet again.

Ryou looked indignant, "Hey, that's only part of my title."

Yugi rolled his eyes, "Oh, I'm _so_ sorry," He snorted and bowed mockingly, "Oh great Thief King."

Ryou giggled and relieved a passerby of her beautiful diamond necklace. "Much better."

Yugi couldn't keep the smile off his face. "Of course." He shook his head. "But if you're the Thief King, then I'm the god damned King of Egypt."

Ryou grinned widely and bowed to him. It wasn't mocking in any way. "As you wish, my Pharaoh."

Yugi did his best not to laugh… But ended up failing miserably. "Let's get to school before we're late, Thief."

"Alright." Ryou found he was now in a much better mood, and Yugi appeared to be too. "Malik's probably waiting for us, Your Majesty."

As they continued on, Ryou mused to himself about Yugi's rather bipolar attitude. One moment he could be the most evil person in Domino City, and the next he'd be making jokes about past lives.

 _Oh well,_ he thought, _At least the chances of something seriously pissing him off this week are next to nothing… He's been surprisingly chipper recently._

 **… End Prologue…**


	2. The Yamis Are Back!

Chapter 1: The Yamis Are Back!

It was a quiet, dreary day in Domino City. A soft drizzle was beginning to soak the ground, while a thin fog blanketed the city. The sun occasionally peeked through the thick clouds, but was quickly swallowed up again by the dense ensemble.

School had begun about 5 minutes earlier.

Within the high school, a tall teenage boy with spiked - yet somewhat droopy - three-colored hair sat at a desk. He had his arms crossed upon the edge of it, and he was staring rather intently at the pen that laid upon some papers. He seemed expectant, like he was waiting for it to do something. After a moment or two of staring, the pen floated up off the desk, shaking as it began to ascend. A small black stone hanging from a string around his neck pulsed as it happened.

The boy was so intent on watching the pen and keeping it afloat where it was a few centimetres off the surface of the desk, that he didn't notice three people shuffling awkwardly into the classroom. At the teacher's insistence, they each introduced themselves in turn.

The first, who looked very much like the boy watching the pen, spoke first. "Greetings. I am Yami Atemu. It is a pleasure to be here." The sentence was punctuated by a curt bow.

The sitting boy seemed startled. He narrowly avoided letting the pen drop onto the desk, and although he gave the appearance of paying attention only to the pen, only a fraction of his concentration remained away from the three men at the front of the room.

The second student, who also bore a resemblance to another already in the class, spoke next. He was tall and only a shade or two darker than the one he resembled, with a large scar beneath his eye. "I am Bakura Akefia. Don't bother me, and I won't have to hurt you." Across the room, the student he resembled looked up from his book. Clearly he was intrigued.

The final student yet again resembled one already in the class. This one was caramel skinned, with wild hair and lilac eyes. "I'm Marik Ishtar." He grinned, a mad gleam in his eyes. "Just stay out of my way."

The one he resembled kept his eyes trained firmly on his desk, a tremble running through him.

The teacher then assigned them to their seats, choosing to seat them next to the boys they resembled - Yugi Muto, Ryou Bakura, and Malik Ishtar - mostly because she thought it would be funny to seat them there. They looked so alike, she almost thought they could be related - especially Malik and Marik. They even had the same last name.

However, Yugi, Ryou, and Malik seemed… Less than pleased with her decision. She found it strange, since none of them ever displayed such blatant distaste for her choices. Given their reputation, however, she secretly hoped they chose not to do anything about it… But she had to make at least one more stupid decision, she supposed. And so, she spoke. "Yugi, Ryou, Malik, I'd like you three to give your new neighbors a tour of the school today."

Yugi's eyes snapped toward her, his pen clattering noisily onto the desk. His amethyst eyes narrowed at her, upper lip twitching in a most unflattering way. Contrary to his expression, the words that left his twitching mouth were incredibly calm. "It'd be a pleasure."

Swallowing, she turned to Ryou for his answer. His face was blank, though there was a trace of disapproval there that made it clear he was in no way pleased. Like Yugi, however, his answer was calm. "Fine."

And, finally, Malik was under her nervous gaze. He seemed the slightest bit nervous himself, if the tremble was anything to go by. "Sure…" He managed to sound calm, but the quiver in his voice gave him away. She assumed, then, that he and Marik at least knew each other, and that whatever circumstances they had met under, it hadn't been pleasant. She nodded in response, though, and chose not to voice her thoughts, sitting down at her desk.

Yugi moved his gaze back to his desk and did his best to keep it there. The pen lifted up off the desk again. It hovered upright, tip tapping gently at the first line on the stack of papers beneath it.

'HELLO PHARAOH', it wrote out after a long moment. The Arabic it was written in was a little bit difficult for Yami to decipher. He struggled with it for a moment before Yugi rolled his eyes impatiently and had the pen rewrite the phrase in hieroglyphs. Yami looked away, embarrassed by the simplicity of the phrase he had failed to translate, and uttered a soft greeting in return. He heard Yugi snort quietly.

He cast a glance back at the slightly shorter male, curiosity momentarily overriding his embarrassment. Aside from an obvious growth spurt, there was something different about Yugi. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, but whatever the case may have been, it seemed to be an incredibly obvious change… And, yet, it was elusive. He supposed he'd just have to wait to figure it out.

'HAVING FUN STARING?' The pen scrawled, again in hieroglyphs. Yugi hadn't moved his eyes from his desk, stubbornly trying to ignore Yami's presence. Outwardly, he maintained a cold and detached demeanour as well as he could. He didn't so much as let his lips twitch as he patiently awaited a reply from the darker skinned man.

"... I suppose," Was the answer that eventually fell from Yami's lips.

Yugi made an indifferent noise deep in his throat. The longer this went on, the harder it would be for him to stay quiet and keep his eyes on the paper. 'TAKE A PICTURE. IT WILL LAST LONGER.' It was Yami's turn to make a noise, his much less nonchalant than Yugi's. He seemed simultaneously irritated and uneasy. Mostly irritated, probably, Yugi mused.

"Yugi," He barely contained a shudder when he heard his name roll off of Yami's tongue. His deep voice made everything sound sultry, Yugi swore. "What did I do to deserve the silent treatment?" Ah, that was why he'd said his name. Adding his name made it harder for Yugi not to answer the question.

He cursed, mentally. Why did Yami have to know him so well?

"..." Yugi contemplated whether he should reply verbally, or be a smartass and have the pen write it out for him. He very nearly chose the second option out of a desire to be sassy, and very nearly chose the first because part of him ached to speak to his old partner. In the end, he found his throat was too swollen and sticky to speak, and he was forced to have the pen write his response so he wouldn't choke on the tears that were threatening to form in his eyes. 'YOU CAME BACK.'

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yami's brows knit together. Had he looked closer, he'd have seen the emotions swirling in those crimson-amethyst eyes; pain at his response and then an ensuing twinge of betrayal. But he didn't look closer. He turned his eyes back to the paper and tried his damndest to keep them there. When he let them wander, it was only to glance around and see how Ryou and Malik were faring with their yamis' returns.

He couldn't bare to let his eyes land on Yami.

Across the room, Malik was having an astonishingly better time than he was. Marik had plopped into the previously vacant seat next to him, yanked a Duel Monster's card out of his pocket, and deposited it on Malik's desk rather unceremoniously.

"The fuck is this?" Malik almost cringed. Why had he spoken? He had literally _just_ told himself not to say anything to the psychopath sitting next to him, but what had he done? He'd spoken to him. Ra damn his loose lips.

"Look at it." His alter insisted. He seemed unfazed, mostly, by Malik's unintentional word vomit.

Hesitant for a large variety of reasons, Malik flipped the card over. "Graceful Charity?" He furrowed his brows.

"Yep." Marik watched him.

"Why the Hell?" Malik flung the card back at his alter absently. "I don't need that."

"Sure you do." Marik sent it flying back at him a second later. "Everyone needs a Graceful Charity."

Malik's deadpanned expression didn't seem to be convincing the much more muscular madman otherwise. With a deep sigh of resignation, he retrieved the card from where it had fallen to the floor. It wasn't like he couldn't throw the card away later, or sneak it back into Marik's possession. He was very good at planting items on people - a talent that was beautifully complimented by Ryou's ability to steal pretty much anything that might be useful in any way to any one of them.

He shook his head absently and tucked the card, for the moment, into his own pocket. "So…" He tried to plan out the sentence instead of just spewing whatever words came to mind. "Any particular reason you guys are back? Also, how the hell are _you_ back, in particular?" Well, he supposed his word vomit hadn't been too difficult to understand.

He always started speaking nonsense when he felt like he was in danger, and hoo boy did he right now. Marik terrified him, although he clearly had no intention of telling him that. No doubt it'd make the psychopath happy.

What a freak.

"You know," Marik leaned back in his chair, pressing his knee against the edge of his desk. "I'm not entirely sure… About either question, to be entirely honest." He gave a rather noncommittal shrug. "All I know is that I was fucking around in the Shadow Realm, minding my own damn business and leaving everybody else alone, and then all of a fucking sudden, the Pharaoh and the annoying thief were shaking me awake in the damn Hall of the Dead." He scratched his nose, then shrugged again. "Apparently, we've got some sort of 'sacred mission' or some shit." He snorted and rolled his eyes. "A great darkness threatening the world." He waved his hands 'mysteriously', "Like I give a shit."

Malik sighed. "Well, then, that makes two of us. Though, I'm not sure I'd classify what Yugi, Ryou, and I are doing as 'sacred', exactly." He shifted, discomfort showing through his rather weak attempt at nonchalance.

He looked away to stare at the wall, internally hoping that Ryou was having a better time with this. He didn't want the white-haired man in any kind of negative mood today - it'd spell doom for him when they returned to their shared apartment later that day. Whether Ryou was sad, irritated, or anxious, Malik would be forced to deal with the consequences of whatever Bakura had done wrong.

He shuddered.

Quite luckily for Malik, Ryou was, indeed, having a better time of it than he was.

Of course, this astonishing accomplishment was due mostly to the fact that Bakura didn't seem interested in speaking to him and Ryou wasn't at all interested in forcing him to. He was enjoying the book in his hands, after all, and as long as Bakura kept his mouth shut, Ryou could pretend he didn't exist… And Ryou was pretty amazing at pretending people didn't exist.

He just had a wonderful imagination, he supposed.

Of course, nothing good tended to last for Ryou Bakura, so, _of course_ , Bakura eventually spoke.

It was only one word, spoken softly and with no great amount of any emotion. "... Here." As he said it, he deposited a Duel Monsters card onto Ryou's desk. Ryou had a moment to stare at it over his book before Bakura continued. "I was supposed to give this to you."

Ryou glanced from the card to him, still refusing to put his book down just yet. He was partially suspicious - of course he was. Why wouldn't he be? -, but mostly irritated that his wishes had been ignored yet again. He looked back to the card. The Change of Heart… _How…_ He struggled for a word for a moment or two. _How_ _cute_ , he eventually decided. He again moved his gaze back to Bakura. For a second, he considered speaking, but decided against it and merely nodded before returning the majority of his attention to his book.

To his delight, Bakura appeared to be more than happy to return to the silence. In fact, he almost seemed relieved. Ryou, in a rare moment of unbridled sadism, felt he needed to remove that relieved expression from Bakura's pale, scarred face. By any means necessary.

"You know," He began without lifting his eyes from the book, "I was expecting - hoping, really - to go the rest of my life without ever having to see your face again."

"Likewise." Was the muttered reply.

Ryou felt his lips twitch upwards slightly. "I take it that you're not pleased with the situation?"

"Not even in the slightest." Bakura was cute when he pouted like that. Ryou found himself chuckling. "The fuck are you laughing at?" He scowled.

"You," Ryou replied with a wry smirk. Unlike Malik, he wasn't scared of the man that had, at one time, shared a body with him. Of course, he'd admit that Bakura had been much more intimidating when under Zorc's control, but now that he was completely himself… Ryou couldn't find a plausible reason to be afraid of him. And, lacking a reason to fear Bakura, he didn't even feel a twinge of fear - nor did he feel the slightest bit bad for laughing at the old Thief King.

There was a long silence before Bakura replied.

"When the hell did you grow a pair?" He scowled."You're too damn ballsy now."

Ryou barely held in the boisterous laughter that bubbled in his throat. Had he really become that much more confident? Well… He supposed it was a very real possibility that he had - a couple of years could do that to a person. Especially a couple of years after having dealt with the man sitting next to him.

"I'm not sure," He admitted, "But it must have happened at some point _after_ the Pharaoh kicked your sorry ass six ways from Sunday."

He could feel the incredulous look Bakura was casting at him much better than he could see it. For some strange reason, knowing that he'd surprised Bakura in some way left him feeling pretty satisfied. And knowing that the much, _much_ older male was trying so very hard to figure out just how much about him had changed made the situation even better. He had to bite his cheek to stifle another round of laughter.

"... You've really grown up." Bakura said after another extended silence.

 _Wait a minute…_ Ryou glanced over discreetly. _Did he sound… Proud?_ It was a laughable thought, really, but just looking at Bakura's face assured him that it was no joke. "Yeah." He replied softly, "I guess I have." He gave a sigh and laid the book down on his desk before finally making direct eye contact with Bakura. "Although I very much doubt you'd sound so proud if you knew what I've been doing."

"That depends," Bakura conceded.

"I know it does." Ryou pursed his lips. "So, let's just put it like this…" _Gulp_. "I stole your title."

He almost picked the book back up and cut off the conversation, but he didn't move in time.

Bakura blinked at him. "You? A thief?" Again, he was incredulous.

Ryou almost snorted at that. "Yeah." He nodded. "And I'm pretty damn good at it, too." He proceeded to pull a Duel Monster's card from his jacket. "By the way, I do believe that this belongs to you." He held it out to him, chuckling when the other quickly snatched the card away when he realized what it was.

"How did you-?"

"I told you," Ryou waggled his finger at him. "I'm pretty damn good at what I do."

Another scowl, perhaps more irritated than the one before it, was Bakura's reply to that as he tucked the card away. "I was expecting you to turn into a hermit or a contract killer after what I put you through… Not follow in my footsteps." He seemed to grow uncomfortable at the thought, shifting a bit. "It's rather… Unnerving, I guess, to see you taking so much after me." He admitted.

"Me? A contract killer?" Ryou did snort, this time. "No, no. That's Malik, I'm afraid."

Bakura grew more uncomfortable. "I… I can't tell if you're joking or not."

Ryou gave a wry smile and picked his book back up. "My dear yami," He said sweetly, "You're just going to have to find out on your own." He gave the impression of going back to reading his book purely out of a desire to discreetly watch Bakura squirm. He was feeling more vindictive than usual today, he noted offhandedly. One would think he really _was_ the Thief King if he went on like this much longer.

Yet again, he was forced to stifle a laugh at his own thoughts.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, here we are - the end of the first chapter. Since I neglected to do so in "Two Years Time",I would like to** ** _officially_** **thank my dear Witchling, Nerd of Camelot, for revising the existing chapters of the original version of this story. I, personally, believe she did a** ** _wonderful_** **job of it, especially since the majority of it was done in under two months. Yes, that's right, she waded through all the original tomfoolery of this story and reworked and rewrote it to make it so much better than it was before in under two months. What a wonderful Witchling she is.**

 **She's also begging me to stop lying about how amazing she is, but she just doesn't realize it's the truth. Anyone interested in reading her works should check out her profile on this site!**

 **Anyway, I'll shut up now that I've shamelessly complimented my revisionist/beta-reader and advertised her.**


	3. No Tour For You!

Chapter 2: No Tour For You!

Late, as usual, a tall girl and her much shorter companion entered the classroom. Today, they were a tad bit later than they usually were, as they entered nearly halfway through the period, but it was clear that neither one cared. The teacher, of course, cast them a disapproving look as they headed to their desks, but nothing more was done about their tardiness. It was with no real amount of fuss that they took their seats.

Coincidentally, those seats were located _directly_ in front of Yugi and Yami's. And, much less coincidentally, both of the girls knew Yugi. Fairly well, as a matter of fact, and the one who sat in front of him just so happened to be incredibly fond of annoying him to high hell whenever possible.

Her name was Amelia, and she was damn near the bubbliest little Japanese-Egyptian on the planet. With a very great deal of emphasis on the 'little', Yugi reminded himself as he stared at the back of her head. She stood at about five feet even - perhaps less - with messy, cowlick plagued black hair and a skin tone to rival Marik's. And, as if she wasn't nonthreatening enough already, her big, round, sweet lavender eyes gave her the appearance of a doe… Or maybe even a child.

Her companion… Much less so, in all regards. Her name was Xavier - although she rarely responded to that name, preferring instead a nickname that was very rarely given out - and she was quite possibly the grumpiest person Yugi knew (himself aside, of course). Like Amelia, her hair was black, but that was where their similarities seemed to cease. Her hair fell nearly to her knees, a rather impressive feat considering the young woman stood a good 6'1'' when she wasn't wearing her favorite elevator boots, which added something like three inches to her height. She was incredibly pale, almost to the point of her skin taking on a bit of a blue tint. And her skin was incredibly thin, in places appearing almost transparent, and her cheeks were sunken in. She looked incredibly gaunt - an appearance that was only added to by her narrowed steel grey eyes, set deep in their sockets and surrounded by dark bruises.

Yami could tell, the very moment she had entered, that she had an incredibly large amount of Shadow Magic within her, probably due to the various amulets dripping from her neck and arms. He also sensed a great suffering… Suffering that most likely contributed a great deal to her almost corpse like appearance. Despite being practically skeletal, however, he could easily say that she was quite threatening.

Perhaps that was why everyone else in the classroom had averted their eyes when she entered.

Just as Yami and Yugi were about to do the same, Xavier turned her icy gaze on them. "You must be new here." She said flatly as she looked at Yami.

"Someone new?" Amelia swivelled quickly around in her chair. Her eyes had lit up brightly at the very prospect, and only sparkled more when she saw Yami. "Oh, you must be Yami!" She gushed, just as bubbly as she always was. "It's so nice to get to meet you!" She stuck out a hand in his direction. "My name is Amelia!"

He blinked owlishly before putting out his own hand to shake hers. After nearly having his arm wrenched out of its socket due to the force of her excited handshake, he cleared his throat, feeling just a tad awkward. "How did you know who I was?"

"I know lots of things." She grinned at him. "By the way, would you prefer it if I called you Atem?"

"Yami is fine," He sighed, "As of right now Atem is technically my last name."

"Alrighty!" She chirped.

"Where she gets all this energy, I'm afraid I do not know." Xavier uttered. Yami turned back to her, admittedly just the teensiest bit unnerved by her unwavering gaze. "As for you… I'm sorry to say that I don't have near as much information about you as she does, and to be honest I'd prefer to keep it that way." She turned away. "Just ignore me and the two of us will get along quite famously."

"Of course," Yugi said boredly, "Should you ever happen to decide to pay her any mind, I'd suggest using her nickname and not the name the teachers refer to her by."

Yami opened his mouth to ask what exactly that nickname might be, but Yugi had already turned his attention to a fresh sheet of paper on his desk. As Yami let his mouth click shut, he did pause to wonder what had become of the page that Yugi had been writing to him on, but soon went back to being ever so slightly offended that Yugi had only said a grand total of one sentence to him out loud this whole time. And due to that, he was _quite_ sure that the boy wouldn't have answered his question even if he had gotten around to asking it.

There was a soft ripple of Shadow Magic, bringing his attention back to Yugi's desk. His pen was now floating again. _So_ that's _how he does it._ Yami mused. He tried not to admit - even to himself - that knowing Yugi had even the slightest control over Shadow Magic made him uneasy. It brought to mind a thousand possibilities that he preferred not to think about…

This made Yugi a considerably larger threat that Yami had been anticipating; that is to say he hadn't expected Yugi to be a threat at all. He'd been expecting a good friend, rather than a chilly ally whose allegiance was certainly questionable at best. Perhaps _he_ was the great evil that Osiris had sensed - Yami balked at the thought, but he had to admit that it was a very real possibility. Even so, it was going to be impossible to tell for sure if Yugi was so set on giving him the silent treatment.

And he also tried not to admit how much that hurt him.

Yugi, entirely oblivious to Yami's ongoing internal struggle, kept his eyes glued calmly to the paper, mentally dictating a note that the pen was dutifully writing out for him. He kept his eyes on it for a moment after the pen had laid itself down, unwilling to look anywhere else for the time being. He was, admittedly, scared that he'd look at Yami and lose what very little determination he had in terms of not speaking to the man. Eventually, he took a deep breath (as quietly as he could) and had the paper fold itself up.

Immediately afterwards, it was sent sailing across the room at a high speed toward the back of Ryou's head.

The taller male didn't even look up from his book, instead keeping his eyes glued to it even as he reached up to snag the paper from the air. Only after it was safely in his hand did he set his rather thick book on the table. Turning his attention to the folded paper, he began to unfold it.

"... You really enjoy watching me squirm, don't you?" Bakura seemed to be somewhat exasperated. Ryou was confused for a moment as to why Bakura had chosen that moment to make such a comment - it seemed incredibly out of place until he reminded himself that up until a minute or two before he'd been actively trying to make Bakura uncomfortable.

He chuckled. "Yes, actually." He replied with a smirk, "I find it quite refreshing… But if you'll be so kind as to excuse me a moment, I have a note to read."

As soon as he had finished doing so, he folded the paper back up and sent it along on its merry way toward the Ishtars. It bounced off of one of Marik's spikes and into Malik's lap with a soft but certainly audible 'thwap'. Malik heaved a sigh and picked up the note, unfolding it. Next to him, Marik looked quite perplexed - possibly because he couldn't yet figure out what had hit his hair.

Before he even noticed Malik reading the note, Malik had wadded it up, shifted rather uncomfortably, and lobbed the paper at the back of Seto Kaiba's head. It hit him, went spiralling off in the opposite direction, and skidded across Joey's desk three feet away. Seto glanced at Malik, clearly unimpressed, but Malik only snorted and tried not to laugh. A roll of the rich man's eyes was the only other response given before he turned away again.

Meanwhile, Joey narrowly prevented the note from sliding right off onto the floor, catching it as it crossed over the edge of his desk into the open air.

Only after he was sure he wasn't going to drop it did he unwad it and examine the neat, tidy writing on the paper. A noncommittal shrug and a grunt were his response. He read it over a couple more times, just to make sure he didn't miss any side notes or 'ps'-es Yugi might have included. Satisfied, he wadded it back up and chucked it at Kaiba.

It sailed right over the millionaire's head. Those watching thought that it might sail right onto the teacher's desk, but for some unknown reason it simply dropped out of the air once it was above Kaiba's. Even Yugi wasn't entirely sure about how that had worked. But, when the crumpled paper landed cleanly on the brunet's desk, he clapped once, as did Ryou and Malik. Joey seemed quite pleased with himself.

All of them had their eyes back on their desks by the time the teacher looked up to see what the commotion was.

Seto was quite wary of the little ball on his desk, as he usually was of any kind of paper that he didn't know the origin of. After some consideration, he carefully uncrumpled it and smoothed it out on his desk - much to his delight (and consternation), it was merely a note from Yugi. Usually, unidentified crumpled pieces of paper on his desk were death threats.

The note read: "Meeting at lunch. Usual place. **No** outsiders. Reason is fairly obvious."

As he crumpled the note back up and prepared to throw it in the trash, a new, neatly folded scrap of paper plopped gently onto his desk next to his hand. With a sigh, he set the old one down in favor of the neat one - this was a note meant solely for him, he was certain, and seeing as only three people he knew could drop a note on his desk from across the room, and only one of them had a habit of doing so, he reasoned that this note was probably from Yugi as well.

He opened it as if he thought it could be booby-trapped.

"You **will** attend this meeting, Kaiba. No excuses." Of course, Kaiba already knew that 'no excuses' merely meant that anything short of Mokuba going missing was not a permissible reason to miss the meeting.

He glanced toward Yugi, nodding to show he understood, and got up to throw the notes away. It was beyond him why Yugi would want him to attend one of his ridiculous lunch meetings, but far be it from him to tell the shorter one 'No' these days. He'd seen for himself what Yugi could do when he was angry, and to be quite honest, Seto was not particularly keen on the idea of getting his ass handed to him by that runt in a physical altercation. The humiliation would be unbearable - he wasn't sure how that Tea girl could still stand to show her face in public after Yugi had acquainted her with the back of his hand one particularly bad day.

Although, Seto wasn't entirely clear on what events, exactly, had led up to that particularly infamous incident.

Yami watched the room warily as these events unfolded around him. He wasn't fond of being oblivious to what was going on in Yugi's life, particularly the whole _Shadow Magic_ issue. When had Yugi learned how to control it? And so well, at that. It almost seemed the boy had completely mastered it within the past two years.

Incredible.

But no matter how in awe of Yugi's talents he happened to be, he was incredibly on edge about the young man. He was giving off an aura that caused Yami's blood to run cold. There was pain within it, mostly, but an icy, calculating anger swam beneath the surface. Something had gone terribly wrong somewhere along the line; Yami was sure of it.

What could it have been? What in any world could have done so much damage to his dear Aibou? Surely it must have even something big. _Or perhaps,_ some small scrap of ancient wisdom suggested, _it was a great many small things._ Yes, he supposed, many small things would eventually take such a toll on one's mind. Especially someone whose mind hadn't been very strong to begin with… But he still couldn't fathom how badly things must have been for Yugi's once childishly happy soul to have become so sad and angry.

"Yugi," Yami took a chance at the verbal approach. He actually saw Yugi go completely still. He saw him stop breathing.

After a very long pause, a tiny intake of breath preceded a clipped, "What?"

"Why does my being back bother you so much?" It was a very simple question, really. He didn't expect the response to be anything elaborate - perhaps a simple, although incredibly unhelpful, 'Because'.

Finally, Yugi looked at him. Yami's heart stopped. There was something in Yugi's eyes… A hatred. A burning hatred- "There's a very long list of reasons," He hissed mere seconds before the bell rang to signal a change of classes. He snatched up his things, stuffed them into his bag, and began to leave, pausing briefly to lean in incredibly close to Yami's face. The older man could feel his breath. "And you can give yourself a fucking tour."

And he stormed out into the hallway, toward his next class halfway across the school, leaving Yami to sit there in stunned silence for a while. He wasn't sure how long it was, but it was Joey who eventually coaxed him out of his seat and toward his next class.

"Sorry about Yug'," He said as they left, "He's been pretty… Hard ta handle for the past year 'r so."

"It's… Alright, Joey." Yami sighed. "What caused him to be like this?"

"Dunno, man." Joey rubbed the back of his neck. "Least, I dunno enough to fill ya in on everything."

"Please tell me whatever you know, Joey." Yami pleaded. "I sense that there is something very wrong with him."

"Aint that the damn truth." Joey snorted. "I'll tell ya what I can during lunch. For now though, class - speakin' a' which, you're pretty lucky we have this class together!"

"Yes, I suppose I am." He nodded.

Joey laughed and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry, my man, I'll tell ya everything I can think of."

"I certainly hope so," Yami sighed again. "I'd be… disappointed, if you hid something important from me."

"Bah, why in the world would I do somethin' like that?" He grinned. "Aint no reason to leave anything out!" He gave him a gentle shake. "Only stuff I aint gonna tell you is the stuff I dunno."

Yami couldn't help the ghost of a smile that came onto his face. Leave it to Joey to have already cheered him up a bit. He was like an incredibly loyal, quirky dog - always had been, honestly. Not that he'd tell the blond that, of course. He knew how much Joey hated being called a dog.

"Here we are." Joey clapped him on the back. "Creative writin'! Whoda thunk it, right?" He chuckled.

"Certainly not me," Yami admitted with a soft laugh. "But how did you know we shared this class?"

"Huh? Oh." He reached into his pocket. "Ry snagged yer schedule and handed it off to me."

He blinked slowly. "Ryou stole my schedule? When?"

"Dunno. Probably while you were zoned out." He shrugged. "Here." He handed a folded paper to him. "Now let's get in here!"

"Alright." He accepted the schedule and allowed the incredibly excitable blond to drag him into the room.

Just down the hall, Yugi sat in another room - a computer room, actually. He was "happily" seated in the back of the room, where it was harder for other people to bother him, with only Kaiba in his general vicinity. He wasn't sure why Kaiba even took this class; it was a programming course. The man was already a programming prodigy, for God's sake.

 _He probably just takes the class so he can feel like he's better than everyone else. Nothing new there._ Yugi internally snorted. Oh, was he feeling better already? Being snarky typically had that effect. As did being rude, crude, slimy, salty, sassy, underhanded, egotistical, or, if he was in a particularly bad mood, downright evil. Letting his aggression out was therapeutic. He found himself smirking, incredibly satisfied by the fact that he hadn't been docile with Yami.

He hadn't gone weak at the knees, gotten shaky… He hadn't even stammered. He really had grown up… That was just **so** satisfying to him. And the look on Yami's face - priceless. He'd remember that stunned, scared look for the rest of his life.

Today was already going better than he had anticipated.

Although, he wished that the yamis hadn't returned - then it could have been a _wonderful_ day. Everyone else was positively gloomy because of the state of the weather outside already, and he could easily make it worse for them.

Well, it was still a great day if he ignored the fact that the teacher was, yet again, monotonously monologuing about how to write gaming software. He rolled his eyes - at this point, it was only a matter of time before Seto ended up going straight savage on the old man. Yugi was going to enjoy that day when it came. And he was going to laugh. And laugh. And laugh. Because it would be the only entertainment that ever occurred in this class.

But, evidently, today was not the day that that was going to happen. And he was already _so_ over this for the day.

"Excuse me, sir?" He put a hand up.

"Yes, Muto?" The teacher seemed ever so slightly irritated.

"Thanks." Yugi snickered. "Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that your class is fucking terrible and you can't teach for shit." He stood, picking up his bag, and started toward the classroom door. The teacher watched, clearly offended. "Oh," He paused midway through exiting the room. "By the way," He turned and looked him dead in the eye. "If I wanted to learn how to write gaming software, I'd take a class from Kaiba. At least he knows when to shut his mouth."

The door clanged shut behind him as he strutted off down the hall, leaving everyone in the class blinking slowly after him. The teacher slowly plopped down into his seat while the whole class erupted into cheering. Seto found himself chuckling and clapping slowly. Yugi really had grown a pair recently. It was incredibly refreshing.

Halfway down the hall, Yugi let himself cackle. Today was _great_.


	4. Lunch

Chapter 3: Lunch

By the time lunch rolled around, Yugi had managed to generally ruin a handful of people's days. He'd injured a Freshman, made four people cry (not including the Freshman, who was shockingly straightfaced even after getting nailed with a binder to the back of the head), and make at least one person question everything that they knew. He'd have done more if the class periods were longer, but alas, he was interrupted in his attempts to make a fifth person bawl.

Oh well.

On his way out to the Cherry Blossom Tree where he and his 'friends' usually ate lunch, he was joined by Ryou. "Your handiwork, I presume?" He drawled casually, jerking a thumb toward an inconsolable girl who was sitting on the ground.

Yugi glanced at her, then grinned. "Yep. _Two periods ago_."

Ryou seemed mildly impressed. "What did you do to her?"

"Oh, you know," Yugi shrugged, chuckling to himself as a Sophomore practically dived out of their way. "The usual."

Ryou rolled his eyes. "You're **evil** sometimes."

"You always know what to say~." Yugi leaned against him with an exaggerated swoon, batting his eyelashes at him. He only stayed like that for a moment before erupting into cackles.

"Whatever you're smoking," Malik was approaching, Marik and Bakura in tow, "I want some."

Contrary to what Ryou had expected, the yamis' approach and Malik's sarcasm did not cause Yugi to immediately clam up. Instead, he looked at Malik, stuck out his tongue, and said, "You don't get any."

Malik faked a hurt expression, putting a hand over his heart. He fell against Ryou. "How cruel!" He cried dramatically, "How could you?"

Ryou simply stood there, the two of them draped over his sides like he was a chaise. He sighed. "Joey," He said to the blonde as he trudged closer, "They're drowning me in their melodrama."

Joey chuckled, "Nothin' I can do," He put his hands up, "'Cept mention that Yami's on his way."

"Perfect." Yugi straightened himself out immediately, adjusting his jacket. "As soon as he and Kaiba arrive, we can get started."

Joey scrunched up his nose. "Can't believe you actually invite that scumbag to these things. Not like he even cares about any of it." He muttered distastefully.

"That's exactly why I invite him, Joey." Yugi deadpanned, losing all traces of the smile he'd had previously. "He doesn't have a fuck to give about what we're doing and is therefore level-headed and a good source of advice on touchy subjects."

"He's also a rude piece of shit with no regard for or toward the feelings of others," Malik argued before Joey could open his mouth, "And has _plenty_ of fucks to give about insulting the shit out of us."

"So do I, idiot." Yugi rolled his eyes.

"He's got you on that one." Ryou leaned against the tree after freeing himself from Malik's grasp.

Malik frowned at both of them before looking away, scoffing. Bakura raised an eyebrow, unsure of how severe an argument this really was - not that he even cared. But some small part of him - the bordest part, he presumed - wondered how often these things happened and how they affected the seemingly tenuous friendship between the three.

Offhandedly - or at least he wanted to pretend it was offhandedly -, he noted that Ryou and Yugi seemed to get along with each other much better than they did with Malik. Although, they could just be having an off day, he supposed.

It took a moment or two for Yami to show up, and when he did he decided to take a place next to Bakura and Marik and keep his mouth shut. In the five or six additional minutes it took for Seto Kaiba to arrive at the Cherry Tree, the three of them observed the interactions of their once-hikaris. Very soon, Bakura found that his theory was only correct in the case of Yugi. He was friendly - if it could really be called that - toward Ryou, and less so toward Malik, if only slightly. On the other hand, Ryou was interacting rather affectionately with both of them, but moreso toward Malik; almost as if he was attempting to make up for the lack of warmth toward the Egyptian on Yugi's part. And Malik… Didn't appear to be particularly affectionate toward either of them in any uneven quantities. He gave an equal amount of attention to both of them and didn't seem outwardly affected by how aloof Yugi was being.

Bakura guessed, again, that he was only taking this much interest in their lives because he was bored. There couldn't be any other explanations… Could there? Of course not. It seemed Marik was taking an interest in them as well, but Bakura thought it safe to assume he was probably just plotting their slow, painful deaths at his hands. It was certainly plausible, after all. And Yami… Yami was being unusually quiet - an assumption based in rather hazy memories of Yami's rants about friendship, courage, and the Heart of the Cards -, simply watching the goings-on before him with an expression Bakura was unable to read.

That was vaguely unnerving, if he was entirely honest.

It was really anyone's guess what the Pharaoh was thinking. It was likely that he wasn't even paying attention to his surroundings. He could very well just be staring into space.

No one but Yami could really know for sure.

When Seto finally got there, Malik was again being teased about how melodramatic he could be. One look at Seto's face could tell you right away how little he wanted to be there. But it wasn't hard to figure out that he probably didn't have a better place to be at the moment, if he'd shown up anyway.

"I'm here." He scowled, "Let's get this ridiculous meeting of yours over with, Muto."

"Fine." Yugi's face went blank again. "You're in luck, Kaiba, because today's meeting is going to be painfully brief."

"Perfect."

Yami's somewhat glazed expression cleared up, and he joined the other two yamis in focusing on what was being said.

"Let's keep this nice and simple." Yugi began, "Today's meeting is about those three being back." He waved at them dismissively with one hand, "Somebody needs to get them up-to-date. Any takers?" Joey raised his hand after a moment of quiet hesitation from all other parties. Yugi nodded, then looked around with a raised brow, clearly unimpressed by the lack of offers from anyone else - Joey could only tell them so much, after all. Someone with a little more knowledge needed to fill in the rest.

After a moment or two, Ryou sighed and sent Yugi and Malik a withering look. "I'll do the rest." He offered unhappily.

Before anyone could reply, a cold wind rushed through the area. Only Yugi and Seto managed not to shiver - Yami and Bakura noticed, out of boredom of course, that Malik and Ryou had both gone rigid and, after a shared glance with each other, quickly moved to flank Yugi on either side. They moved closer when the breeze subsided completely. Yugi took note of their suspicious expressions while wearing one of his own.

The three of them looked around as nonchalantly as they could.

"We're being watched." Yugi hissed, scowling. "Ryou, you explain to them. I'll be right back."

He swept off and disappeared behind the tree. He did not reappear.

Ryou stood up a little straighter, and Malik hung very close to his side, as if he was scared. But his eyes showed otherwise - he was not trying to hide behind Ryou. He was staying so close to him in order to protect him. His hand was in his back pocket, grasping something that Bakura could only assume was a weapon.

"To be incredibly frank," Ryou's voice drew everyone's attention, despite how softly and calmly he was speaking, "We're in the middle of a very important situation now - a delicate and incredibly dangerous situation. If we can't figure everything out soon, there's a very real possibility of all of us dying horrible, painful deaths."

The fact that he'd said it with no trace of fear - not even a quiver in his voice -, and in fact seemed entirely unimpressed by the whole ordeal spoke volumes to Bakura. Ryou was no longer scared of death. He didn't care if the afterlife claimed him, but something told Bakura that Ryou wouldn't simply be lying down and dying. He'd fight, certainly. Possibly until his very last breath.

As the words he'd spoken registered to Yami, however, the man unconsciously gulped. Dying a horrible painful death wasn't exactly appealing (although Ryou's tone had made it sound like as mundane a thing as taking a leisurely stroll through the park), and something about the new information he'd gotten was setting off alarm bells in his head. Could it be that whatever Yugi and the others were dealing with was the great darkness Osiris had warned him about? He'd admit he was relieved at the prospect of it not being Yugi, after all… But that didn't stop him from feeling an intense, all-consuming dread. Osiris had warned him of the gravity of the situation - a darkness strong enough to unnerve the god of the Dead himself was bad enough, but it was even beginning to unnerve the other gods. That meant that they were dealing with a darkness of Zorc Necrophadean proportions, and _that_ meant that the hikaris were going to need all the help they could get in taking it down.

And no wonder Osiris had brought back Bakura, in that case - who better to know what a darkness that great would want than someone who was once possessed by the great god of evil himself? Although he was still rather fuzzy on why Marik had been brought back… Perhaps Ra had requested it.

Yami could just imagine it - in the hall of the gods in the heavens, Osiris and Ra would be speaking about this great darkness together. 'I plan on bringing back the Pharaoh Atem and the Thief King,' Osiris would say. And Ra would look at him and reply, straightfaced, 'If they get to come back, so does Marik'. Osiris would become exasperated, reminding Ra of the fact that Marik was not dead - merely banished to the Shadow Realm. 'Well, then, let him out'.

He almost snickered.

"Do you even know what you're dealing with?" Bakura, as usual, sounded snarky.

"We certainly have more information on the subject than you do, you glorified pickpocket." Ryou snarked right back.

Joey gave a loud, "Oooh!" in response. Malik snickered, but kept his eyes alert, flickering around the area suspiciously. Yami, himself, had to try very hard not to join in on Joey's chortles.

Shockingly, Bakura seemed vastly unfazed by being sassed or by being insulted and laughed at. "Are you sure about that?"

"Quite."

The two stared at each other for a moment or two. Malik almost allowed himself to be distracted by them, and Yami couldn't really blame him. You could _feel_ the tension in the air around them. You probably could have cut it with a knife, honestly.

The silence stretched on before Bakura, finally, broke it by uttering two of the most provoking words known to man: "Prove it."

"Fine." Ryou took the challenge in stride, looking uncharacteristically snide and confident in himself. "We know that, recently, there's been a long string of increasingly brutal murders. Every victim so far has been completely drained of their soul, and then had their body mutilated until it could no longer survive. We know that with every soul that is drained, our enemy gets stronger. We know that the perpetrator is a tall, thin female with a rather skeletal frame, black hair, and a great deal of shadow magic. And we know that if we don't stop her soon, she'll practically become Zorc 2.0 and kill us all." He made direct, unwavering eye contact with Bakura. "Is that enough information for you?"

Bakura blinked once. Twice. "... Yes. I guess that's good enough."

"Lovely." Ryou smiled condescendingly. "Is there anything else, you outdated tomb decoration?" His voice was sickeningly sweet, clearly meant to demean and insult at the maximum level while appearing polite.

Bakura shook his head.

"Good." Yugi had returned, dropping out of the tree. "Because we need to move. _Now_."

Seto took that as his cue to walk away. It was anyone's guess where he thought he was going, really, but it wasn't as if Yugi would be stopping him. Technically Kaiba had honored what he'd been put up to - he'd only been told to attend the meeting, not that he had to stay for the whole thing or that he had to accompany them to any safer meeting place after the meeting had begun. Yes, loopholes were beautiful.

Despite having been so blatant about not wanting Kaiba there, Joey looked just the teensiest bit sad to see him go. It was only for a half second - a longing look on his face that was gone almost as soon as it appeared. He made no move to follow Kaiba, though it was clear he wanted to, and instead stayed a half-step behind Yugi while they moved to a safer place. Anyone who looked closely enough at his face for that fleeting moment would have been able to tell just how badly he wanted to chase Kaiba down… And that he had Kaiba's sudden departure quite personally. But, seeing as there was no way he'd ever admit to it out loud, there was no real proof of that. One would have to be incredibly clever and have the slickest, most silver tongue possible in order to get any sort of confirmation from him.

Once they were safely back inside the school, Yugi sighed. "We can't talk in here. Meeting adjourned." He turned to leave.

"There's something we didn't discuss, though." Ryou noted absently as he examined his fingernails, polishing them on his shirt.

"And what would _that_ be?" Yugi sounded exasperated.

"Where these three assholes are going to stay." He jerked a thumb at the yamis. "I doubt the gods thought to provide them with room and board."

The silence they received was evidence enough of his claims, and that silence stretched on for a long while. If only he had a cricket, Ryou lamented, he could have made the moment into a joke and completely brushed off the need for the yamis to have a place to stay. He could have brushed it off, swept it under the rug, and went to bed that night to a peaceful sleep while they shivered out on the streets. It could have been beautiful.

Finally, Malik spoke. "I"m going to regret this," He sighed with a visible cringe, "But Marik can stay in my room in our flat."

Ryou nodded in a resigned sort of way. "I was afraid you'd say that." He admitted. "But in that case, Bakura can have the couch. You can sleep in my room with me, Malik."

All eyes turned to Yugi.

He thought for a moment. Should he be the bad guy and tell Yami to buzz off and find somewhere else to stay? Should he simply walk away right now and hope Yami got the message? Somehow, both options seemed almost _too_ cruel to him, but he'd certainly said and done worse things. He was sure he'd survive either way, he always did. But, of course, a part of him did want to be kind. The last remnant of who he'd once been, constantly piping up and causing rare, unpredictable moments of benevolence. Moments that made him want to gag; right now was, unfortunately, one of them. But, somehow, he managed not to retch in front of an audience.

What was he going to do?

He considered his options again. Tell him to hit the road verbally? Nonverbally? Or be… Nice? He didn't really like any of the options. He sighed, then took a deep breath and steeled himself against the growing nausea. "Yami can stay in the spare bedroom at the Game Shop." And before anyone could respond, he turned and strode off as quickly as he could down the hall without running. The Sophomore from earlier dodged him again, almost taking himself out on a locker.

That only brought a little bit of a smile onto his face.

 _Now_ what was he going to do? He didn't have a whole lot of time to waste and he didn't really have anywhere to waste it. He could head out to the weight room across campus, but he had PE next anyway. He stopped after turning a few corners and leaned up against a wall. He was confused, irritated, and, to be honest, tired. Not physically - no, not at all. Physically, he felt amazing, aside from the annoying churning sensation in his stomach. But mentally and emotionally? Oh, he was fucking exhausted.

He had been for a while, honestly. Ever since this case had started… But he'd already been tired before that. It seemed, though, that the longer the case went on, the more exhausted he became. He just wasn't up for the challenge it was presenting him with. It wasn't really his 'thing'.

Sure, he loved puzzles, and he was always up for a good murder mystery, and he _loved_ a good challenge as much as the next guy, but this challenge wasn't at all appealing. It was an obligation. He _had_ to solve this mystery or the whole world would be in danger. That wasn't _fun_. It was worth his time and he was going to solve it no matter what it took, but it wasn't fun. It wasn't a challenge he'd wanted. He still didn't want it. And the mere thought of spending even half as long on this puzzle as he had on the Millennium Puzzle made him want to curl up and die.

But he'd been 'chosen' yet again by destiny. The memory of that fact made his stomach churn even harder. He felt sweat building on his forehead.

He was going to vomit.


	5. Investigation

Chapter 4: "Investigation"

To say that Disarai had taken great pleasure in watching Yugi's little meeting would be a rather grievous understatement.

Of course, her enjoyment of that paled in comparison to her enjoyment of the knowledge that the Pharaoh had returned from the afterlife - and because of _her_ , at that. Was she vain for believing herself to be the cause? Certainly. But was she right? More likely than not. Really, very few things in the world were more dangerous than she was, at the current moment.

She found herself grinning broadly. She'd been fully prepared to rip apart the veil between life and death in order to exact her revenge. Now she didn't have to. How…

Convenient.

And, oh, she was so close, already, to her ultimate goal. So close to being able to bring her vengeance raining down upon the Pharaoh's head in a dark storm of unrelenting fury. It was _glorious_ , really, that he'd returned when he had. Absolutely glorious. Her revenge would be such a sweet, icy treat; the most delicious thing that her long-dead tongue would ever have the privilege of tasting.

Oh, she knew that Yugi would come after her once she was done. She knew that he'd try to kill her and that he'd likely succeed, seeing as her revenge would leave her weak. Drained. But she was quite sure she wouldn't mind dying again. She'd have gotten her one and only wish, after all, and it was only fitting that a vengeful spirit such as herself be felled by the revenge of another.

 _Just 50 more souls_ , she told herself, _50 more, and then I'll have all the power I need. I'll be finished._ _ **We'll**_ _be finished, my dear host._

She ignored the nearly inaudible whimper she received in response.

Yugi's stomach revolting against him was hardly a surprise, and the incessant burn in his throat afterwards was even less of one.

He was far more surprised, really, by the sound of his phone ringing while he was changing back out of his gym clothes. He scowled, half-dressed with his pants not yet buttoned and hanging loosely from his hips, and snagged his backpack from the floor. He dug around in it, scowl only deepening when he didn't immediately hit his mark. Where _was_ that infernal contraption? That outdated flip-phone that he never got around to upgrading?

Curses fell from his mouth when it continued to ring. Why couldn't this asshole just hang up and let him ignore them in peace?

When he finally located the tiny electronic headache, he stared disdainfully at the caller ID for a moment. Oh, this had better be good." These idiots knew he hated it when they called. The _knew_ , and they had agreed the they would only call him if it was serious. Regardless of his irritation, or perhaps because of it, he flipped the old thing open and snapped, "What is it?" into the receiver.

After a long and rather infuriating string of affirmatives, he rolled his eyes. "I _understand_ , asshole. I know what the fuck I'm doing. Don't forget who got your little operation running to begin with." A smug smirk when he got a flustered apology. "Of course you're sorry. Glad to see you're finally accepting yourself."

He hung up.

He had little doubt he'd be getting an earful for that comment here shortly, but he had plenty of experience in tuning the Foundation's leader out while he ranted. He'd just get Ryou to tell him if he missed anything important.

It was unlikely that he would, of course, because 90% of the important information the Foundation received came from the albino himself through mostly unknown means. Really, nobody could be sure where Ryou got half the shit he did. Yugi had asked, once or twice, but Ryou never gave straight answers when confronted with a subject he didn't want to discuss. Yugi and Malik understood that sentiment. They were the same way, usually.

When he finished dressing, pulling his blazer on over his shirt, he picked the phone back up and reopened it. He sent out a text to Ryou and Malik, telling them to meet him at Foundation HQ at their earliest convenience.

He knew, already, that they would arrive before he would.

He deposited his backpack in his hall locker, exchanging his school blazer for a long black trench coat once finished with that. He made his way down the hallway and back out of the building at a leisurely pace. There was no reason for him to hurry. Those fools at the Foundation could damn well wait for him to get there. And they would, because if they started without him there would be Hell to pay.

When he emerged onto the front lawn, he noticed Marik and Bakura staring, clearly dumbfounded, in the direction he was headed. Following their gaze, eh could still just barely see the tails of two more trench coats disappearing around a corner three blocks away. For lack of anyone else who wore those besides himself, Ryou, Malik, and Seto, he would assume it was Ryou and Malik. They must have already been out here when he messaged him, if they were already that far away.

He was fully prepared to pass by Bakura and Marik without a word, and was just about to accomplish it when Bakura called out, "Oi, Muto!"

He stopped to scowl at him. "Yes?"

"Where are you three headed, exactly? Yadonushi - _Ryou_ \- didn't seem exactly pleased when he glanced at his… What are those vile contraptions even called, Ishtar?" He glanced to the Egyptian.

"Cell phones." Marik replied, scratching the side of his neck.

"Cell phone." Bakura turned back to Yugi as if the encounter hadn't even taken place.

"Why do you care?" Yugi lifted a brow. "I'd expect you to be too busy revelling in the fact that you have your own body to focus on the one you used to occupy."

Bakura scowled. "I have nothing better to be doing, at the moment." He explained impatiently. "And that little imp didn't bother to tell me where their 'flat' is. Whatever a flat is." He shot a glance at Marik who shrugged.

"It's another word for 'apartment'." Yugi snickered. "And I suppose that's a good enough explanation for me. Just follow me."

God knew he was only bringing them for entertainment purposes, but he supposed it would be mutually beneficial. And listening to Bakura struggle with modern terminology would more than make up for Ryou's irritation about Bakura being brought along. Ryou always got a kick out of the suffering of others - the Brit had one hell of a case of schadenfreude.

It didn't take as long as he'd been expecting for them to catch up with Ryou and Malik, mostly due to the fact that the two of them had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to argue. How long they'd been bickering or what this particular row was about was anyone's guess. Those two could argue about everything from the state of Ryou's hair to how Malik shuffled his dueling deck. It got pretty fucking annoying pretty fucking quickly, if Yugi was honest even in the slightest.

Of course, both of them realized that it was annoying, and neither of them particularly cared to have others listening in on their arguments, so they typically managed to hold their tongues until they were alone.

Yugi only realized they'd caught up when he hear their raised voices floating down the street. He saw Bakura and Marik's eyebrows lift up out of the corner of his eye. And, right before Ryou and Malik came into view, there was the sharp, vaguely familiar sound of skin against skin. Silence followed. Yugi almost stopped walking, because he was honestly surprised that their argument had come to blows, but he _needed_ to know who'd been hit and why it had come to that.

When they entered Yugi's view, Ryou was stalking away from a quite obviously stunned Malik. The Egyptian seemed frozen in place, the tips of his fingers brushing against a bright red, full handprint on his cheek. He blinked, slowly, turning his head to look after Ryou, and then to look at Yugi, as if asking the younger male to confirm what had just occurred.

Yugi had to wonder what he'd said to make Ryou smack him in the first place, of course, but he was incredibly intrigued to find out what he'd said to make Ryou smack him hard enough to leave a mark.

"He hit me." Malik informed him dumbly when he was close enough. "I… I don't even know what I did."

"You never can tell with Ryou." Yugi shrugged. "Let's head after him, yeah? We've got work."

Malik nodded, and Yugi noticed rather belatedly that Bakura had already made his way past them to chase Ryou. Thankfully, that meant _he'd_ be dealing with the aftermath of the argument on Ryou's end and that meant less work for Yugi. He'd just have to do cleanup on Malik and that as a thousand times easier than both of them at once or even Ryou by himself.

He hadn't been counting on Malik shutting up like a clam when he saw Marik.

He guessed that just made it easier for him, because if Malik didn't want to talk he didn't have to listen. Not listening meant no cleanup duty for him. No cleanup duty meant no pretending to care and no pretending to care meant he was going to have a somewhat more enjoyable afternoon than what he'd been planning for.

Or at least he hoped so.

"Why is _he_ here?" Malik hissed as they started walking.

"Because he followed me." Yugi rolled his eyes as he hissed back.

"Why didn't you threaten to cut his legs off or something?"

"I didn't think it would do much in the way of intimidating him." He shrugged. "I'm still shorter than he is, Malik, and I look about as intimidating as a Kuriboh." He scratched his nose. "Besides, you'll be sharing a flat with him. Better get used to him now."

Malik grumbled in response, shoving his hands in his pockets and kicking a rock. It was silent for a bit. Yugi didn't even notice Malik was no longer beside him, at first, but it was drawn to his attention when he realized he could no longer hear anyone else breathing. He turned around, pausing for a moment, eyes scanning the sidewalk. Malik was nowhere to be found… And neither was Marik.

That was… Ominous.

Oh, well. It wasn't like it was his job to look after Malik - in fact, it was supposed to be entirely the other way around. Malik was supposed to keep an eye on him, keep him out of trouble.

"Let go of me!" Malik wasn't sure where he was, but he knew the hands that held him in place. He knew every crease of them. Every fold. Every callous.

They were his, after all.

There was no response from his captor. He struggled against the grip on his biceps, despite knowing it was in vain. He wanted to scream. Curse. Demand that the man behind him to take his filthy fingers off of him. But, for once, his _stupid_ mouth wouldn't open to let his thoughts out.

At the thought that, maybe, just _maybe_ , Marik was controlling him, he panicked. He struggled harder. "Let," He managed to spit. "Go."

This time, he received a response. "Why should I?"

The chuckle that accompanied the question made some very, very homicidal thoughts come bubbling up to the surface. He shoved them down, back into the back of his mind. "Because I don't fucking want you touching me." He hated the way his voice broke. Hated the high note of panic. "I only offered you my room to be polite. I _hate_ you. Let go."

Another chuckle and, _oh_ , Malik wanted to tear this man's vocal chords out with his teeth.

"Ra was right. You really _don't_ need me anymore. You handle your hate all by yourself."

Malik really wished that he wouldn't sound quite so amused. It was maddening. It made him want to… No. He had to control himself. He had no good reason for a psychotic meltdown right now. "Yes." He hissed. "I can. Now get your hands off of me."

"Make me." The larger purred back.

If only he knew how to manage something like that, he would try.

"You seem to be in an awfully belligerent mood." Bakura finally noted. He'd been walking silently next to Ryou for quite some time and the silence was beginning to annoy him.

"No," Ryou shot him a look. The sarcasm dripping from his voice was oddly refreshing. "Really? I hadn't bloody noticed."

"What did he say?" Bakura lifted a brow.

"Why do you care?" Ryou narrowed his eyes.

Bakura frowned. "Fair point," He acknowledged, "But I don't. I'm bored."

"So you're sticking your nose into my drama? How shockingly human of you."

Bakura didn't think he'd ever heard so much spite in the smaller man's voice, not even when he'd been privy to all of the boy's thoughts as they happened. Two years had done a number on him, certainly.

"Do you _really_ hate me _that_ much, Ryou?"

He could've sworn he saw each and every muscle in the paler's body tense for one half of a second. He was given another dirty took in lieu of a verbal answer. How incredibly childish… And yet it was more scathing than anything the little brat could have actually said to him. How in the world had Ryou learned that the silent treatment was his best bet for getting to him? What had gotten that information into his head?

However it had, it was unspeakably irritating.

They walked on in silence again, for a few moments. Bakura found himself bristling. "So." He eventually snapped. "Where are we going?"

" _I'm_ headed to work." Ryou scowled at him, but didn't turn his head. "As for you? I would assume you're going to Hell."

It was all Bakura could do not to smack him.

* * *

 **NOTE: This story is on indefinite hiatus due to personal issues that have recently arisen. I apologize in advance. Thank you, those of you who took the time to read what's here. I promise I'm not abandoning this story - I'll finish it one day.**


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